Showing Us The Way

source unknown

There was once a man who didn't believe in the
incarnation or the spiritual meaning of Christmas, and
was skeptical about God. He and his family lived in a
farm community. His wife was a devout believer and
diligently raised her children in her faith. He
sometimes gave her a hard time about her faith and
mocked her religious observance of Christmas. One snowy
Christmas eve she was taking the kids to the Christmas
eve service at church. She pleaded with him to come, but
he firmly refused. He ridiculed the idea of the
incarnation of Christ and dismissed it as nonsense. "Why
would God lower himself and become a human like us?!
It's such a ridiculous story!" he said. So she and the
children left for church while he stayed home.

After they left, the winds grew stronger and the snow
turned into a blizzard. As he looked out the window, all
he saw was a blinding snowstorm. He sat down to relax
before the fire for the evening. Then he heard a loud
thump, something hitting against the window. And another
thump. He looked outside but couldn't see. So he
ventured outside to see. In the field near his house he
saw, of all the stangest things, a flock of geese! They
were apparently flying to look for a warmer area down
south, but got caught in the snow storm. The snow had
became too blinding and violent for the geese to fly or
see their way. They were lost and stranded on his farm,
with no food or shelter. They just fluttered their wings
and flew around in circles around the field blindly and
aimlessly.

He had compassion for them and wanted to help them. He
thought to himself, "The barn would be a great place for
them to stay! It's warm and safe; surely they could
spend the night and wait out the storm." So he walked
over to the barn and opened the barn doors for them. He
waited, watching them, hoping they would notice the open
barn and go inside. But they just fluttered around
aimlessly and didn't notice the barn or realize what it
could mean for them. So he started whistling and calling
to them. Nothing. He shouted, jumped up and down, waved
his arms. They didn't pay attention. He moved closer
toward them to get their attention, but they just moved
away from him out of fear. He went into the house and
came back out with some bread, broke it up, and made a
bread trail leading to the barn. They still didn't catch
on. Starting to get frustrated, he went over and tried
to shoo them, run after them, and chase them toward the
barn. They only got scared and scattered into every
direction except toward the barn. None of his attempts
to get them into the barn succeeded. Nothing he did
could get them to go into the barn where there was
warmth, safety, and shelter; nothing he did could make
them enter the one place where they could survive.

Feeling totally frustrated, he exclaimed, "Why don't they
listen to me! Why don't they follow me! What's wrong
with them! Can't they see this is the only place where
they can survive the storm! How can I possibly get them
into the one place to save them!" He thought for a
moment and realized that they just won't follow a human.
He said to himself, "How can I possibly save them? The
only way would be for me to become like those geese. If
only I could become like one of them! Then I could show
them the way! Then I could save them! They would follow
me, not fear me. They would trust me, and I would lead
them to safety."

He stood silently for a moment as the words that he just
said reverberated back to himself in his mind: "If only
I could become like one of them--then I could show them
the way--then I could save them." He thought about his
words, and remembered what he said to his wife: "Why
would God want to be like us? That's so ridiculous!"
Something clicked in his mind as he put these two
together. It was like a revelation, and he began to
understand the incarnation. We were like the
geese--blind, gone astray, perishing. God became like us
so He could show us the way and make a way available to
save us. That is the meaning of Christmas, he realized
in his heart.

As the winds and blinding snow abated, his heart became
quiet and pondered this epiphany. He understood what
Christmas was all about. He knew why Christ had come.
Suddenly years of doubt and disbelief were shattered, as
he humbly and tearfully bowed down in the snow, and
embraced the true meaning of Christmas.